Since the legislature exempted JobsOhio from state ethics laws two years ago, Gov. John Kasich’s privatized economic-development agency likely will not face an ethics complaint filed Thursday by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald.

Lawmakers rejected a plea from the bipartisan Ohio Ethics Commission in 2011 not to “create a parallel ethics universe for JobsOhio.” Instead, the legislature made the nonprofit agency self-policing, with possible ethical dilemmas decided by “disinterested” board members.

FitzGerald, currently executive of Cuyahoga County government, requested a “thorough ethics investigation” by the commission of possible conflicts of interest by JobsOhio board members and Kasich.

But Paul Nick, executive director of the Ethics Commission, told The Dispatch, “We don’t have any authority over the conflict-of-interest statutes with JobsOhio.” While he could not speak specifically about FitzGerald’s complaint, Nick said the only jurisdiction the commission was given over JobsOhio was to receive their financial-disclosure statements — which the legislature made secret.

FitzGerald cited a story this week in the Dayton Daily News showing that six of the nine members of the JobsOhio board picked by Kasich have direct financial ties to companies receiving public money. The Kasich administration says all JobsOhio incentives must be approved by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority — which has three members picked by Kasich and one each by GOP legislative leaders — so there is no conflict.

The complaint also personally cites Kasich, who left the board of Worthington Industries but is still getting money from his service to the company. The company got JobsOhio aid after his departure.

“Thankfully, the ethics commission still has clear jurisdiction over the governor, but this can all be cleared up very easily if Gov. Kasich and the members of the JobsOhio board disclose their conflicts, as Ed called for yesterday,” FitzGerald spokeswoman Meredith Tucker said.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said, “There’s no conflict when these incentives were initiated before there was even a (JobsOhio) board. It’s just politics, and amateurishly executed politics at that.”

However, records show that at least two of the projects cited in the complaint came after the board was created. And while others came before, Kasich has credited JobsOhio with all of the state’s job-creation success.

The current allegations were all but predicted by the Ethics Commission in February 2011, during testimony on the bill that created JobsOhio. The panel urged legislators not to exempt Kasich’s new economic-development entity from ethics laws that virtually all other state and local agencies must follow (except for judicial and legislative bodies, which have their own).

“The commission believes that the provisions of the current bill allowing JobsOhio board members to create their own conflict-of-interest rules and to rule on those rules is filled with danger both for board members and the public,” said former state Rep. Ben Rose, at the time the commission’s chairman.

Keeping JobsOhio under the state ethics umbrella would “increase public support and confidence” in the new agency, Rose said. It also would “relieve the JobsOhio board from being distracted by serving as its own ‘ethics commission’ and allow the board to concentrate on its main duty: creating jobs for Ohio.”

As Democrats continued their attack with a news conference yesterday afternoon, Rep. John Patrick Carney, a Columbus Democrat and likely candidate for state auditor, said that since the JobsOhio board includes one public member, former Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, that might give the Ethics Commission authority to look into the board.

House Democrats asked majority Republicans yesterday to hold hearings on the conflict-of-interest issue. The request went to House Policy and Legislative Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea.